What keeps CoX from being the TOP MMO?

I was reading the massive awards page and thought to myself, "What would it take for CoX to be better than WoW?" This might be a hard question to answer other than one obvious solution.....WoW disappears.

But outside of that how is it that WoW remains on top? Is it that it has longevity? Is it that it's genre is the most popular? Is it that it has great expansion packs? Is it the graphics? What gives? I've been playing CoX on and off for a number of years now and I hate seeing the numbers dwindle. The streets are much more quiet than they used to be. Less raids going on. Ah, but the costume contests are still a plenty....in which I rarely win unless I happen to catch an early morning CC where like 10 people are there. (BIASED JUDGES!)

I just want to see CoX reign supreme. Do you think Going Rogue and Ultra Mode will help alot or just a little? I wonder how many folks will even be able to enjoy ultra mode with the system requirements and all.

Fundamentally, SuperHeros are a niche market.

Ontop of that WOW had a huge player base from the previous Blizzard games to get started, now it has critical mass going for it.

WoW is an aberration. In other words, it's not that CoH and other MMOs are particularly "unsuccessful", it's that WoW is a massive runaway success that exceeds all expectations for a game of the genre.

Some factors:

* It's made by Blizzard, who are one of the few development studios with an actual fanbase who will at least try every game they make.

* Blizzard's development strategy is "take games that are popular, extract the most important elements, build a game around that". They don't invent, they refine and polish. In a market where "innovation" is hyped and sought after, this may sound like an insult, but it really isn't - Blizzard have an uncanny ability to zero in on what really makes a game *click*.

* Massive, massive budget. This has two effects: one, the developers can work on the game with the confidence that they can hold off releasing it until it's *really good*. They'll never be stuck having to release an unfinished game to try to at least break even. Two, advertising. WoW is the only MMO which has had TV spots. No other MMO can *afford* them.

* Snowball effect. If you're not a MMO gamer yet and all your friends are playing WoW, the first MMO you will try will be WoW. Eventually it's the game people are playing because everyone else is playing it.

1) No endgame.
1a) No visible loot-based endgame progression. I love being able to make my character look unique instead of like EVERYBODY ELSE, but with loot-based progression it's not just having phat lewtz--it's showing everyone online you do that makes the epeen grow. (I hope the Old Republic has a mixture of a wonderful costume creator like CoX's but maybe a few costume parts that reflect what you're wearing. Man, Kotor had some ugly and stupid looking armor. just say no to head pieces...)
2) No out of combat skills system.
3) bad pvp is bad.
4) Repetitive nature of the limited number of map layouts/tilesets. But, CoX really did find the sweet spot between tweaking for soloing and tweaking your group spawns for such a long time with the mission difficulty sliders.
5) Devs don't have the Blizzard name and Blizzard reputation behind them. Heck, they suffer from having the Cryptic name attached to them considering the experiences gamers have been having with Cryptic's newer games which are completely unaffiliated with CoX and these devs.
6) No advertising. Unless they're running adverts somewhere I don't see them, CoX has always kept a pretty low profile. Compare that to WoW, which paid to have fairly big name celebs to do commercials for the game. But, it could be worse--at least CoX doesn't have the equivalent of IT'S TIME TO SLAY THE DRAGON.

Ultra Mode counts for some, I guess. I don't really care about graphics. Every now and then when I get a nostalgic hankering I still pop in games that are 15 years old and would make casual gamers cry at how they don't have BLOOM, NEEDS MORE BLOOM! Well, the ones that can still play years and years later (/mourn Thief games. /Thumbs up Deus Ex!)

YES! CoX doesn't have very good advertising at all. Do they even have web ads? I heard of CoH back in like 2004 through word of mouth. Been on and off it ever since. I wonder how much a simple add showing some epic gameplay would cost. They need to jump on it! I'm sure plenty of CoX fans would contribute into campaigning this MMO around the world.

Some good points. Its age is also working against it - it's a 6 year old game and is perceived as old hat by many of the non-players. With an expansion that's at least one year too late and a lack of competent marketing there's little chance of CoH ever making back into the limelight for any sustained period.

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

No one said that CoH was a failure. In my opinion CoX just doesn't live up to it's potential. There are numerous ways that CoX can be brought to glory in the public eye rather than just in the small groups. If WoW has 1.5 mill subscribers and we have that 165k (some of which aren't even playing anymore) then our CoX team might be doing something wrong.

People say the Sci Fi thing is a niche thing....well so is Dungeons and Dragons. I know alot of people who can stand running around in chain armor and shields slaying dragons and stuff. I know tons of people who grew up on comics rather than DnD. Each is it's own genre. CoX just hasn't been capitalizing on all the comic movies/shows that have came out and continue to come out.

Whoever said anything about sheep?

Humans are humans. And humans are followers. It is in their nature. Being a leader, however, is unnatural. Almost, inhuman perhaps?

Just ask anyone who's been a leader.

I think one thing dominates it, at least in my opinion of what makes an MMORPG good. Well, at least something that other MMORPGs have managed to pull off. And yes, this will probably attract a horde of people arguing a moot argument against me, but CoH is not a skill-based game. CoH has click-it powers. You don't need to have skill to play CoH. Personally, that is what I think keeps people playing MMOs that are skill-based - though they are a dying breed -

-Let me just quickly jump in here and clear up any confusion. By Skills I don't mean an alternate name for click-it powers, like Staff Strike and Fireball, I mean the actual, non MMO definition of skill-

the players feel that they are good at something, and so persist at it. Whereas beyond a certain boundary, you can't really be "good" at a game with click-it powers.

Now, I know WoW is the most succesful game out there and every ape can play it, but when I say TOP MMO(RPG) I mean the best MMORPG. I like CoH the way it is. A casual relaxation for people who have the majority of their lives outside of the game. And that's the way I'd like it to stay. But that won't make it the best MMORPG.

The others already gave some important factors to why WoW is more successful. But the fact that WoW is more successful than CoX doesn't mean it's better.

However, if we're fair we have to admit that WoW is a very good MMO. And there are more factors than just genre or fanbase from previous games.
The WoW game client, for example, is very good and it has some advantages over the CoX game client. It loads much faster and is easier to customize. WoW uses a seamless world that is pretty, detailed and very large (a WoW installation needs roughly 10 times the HDD space you'll need for CoX). Loading screens are very rare (almost only before instanced areas or if you travel between the Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Northrend and Outland). You can enter almost every building you'll find (and there are many, even outside the cities), explore shipwrecks on the ocean floor (quite close to the beach, though) and even fly in some areas (probably in all areas after the Cataclysm expansion). Still it runs smoother than CoX (fps count) even/especially on older computers. This is because WoW managed to balance polygon count, texture quality and texture diversity very well. They use as little as necessary to still look good. The result is the „comic style“ WoW is known for. I don't like that much and the popularity of Blood Elves and Draenei with their higher polygon models indicate that the WoW players would prefer „prettier“ if they could get it. Obviously it's enough to attract and keep players, though.

Another aspect is functional clothing. It adds some realism to your costume. If you see someone in plate armor you'll know that he's less squishy than the person wearing a robe. The tradeoff is flexibility in costume creation. WoW is a bit extreme here by not allowing any customization to clothing parts. In CoX the goal was to allow players to create an iconic superhero look which resulted in our wonderful costume creator. The tradeoff is realism and to some degree even immersion factor. A huge character with heavy tech armor could be anything in CoX, still many would expect a tank, scrapper or brute and not a plant/storm controller. The most important aspect of functional clothing is probably the „show“ factor. I believe most players want to shine with their character. Just by looking at them you should see how „buff“ they are. In CoX this isn't possible. But when you see a toon in WoW with spiked shoulders, shiny armor, glowing weapons and whatnot it will give you a clue to the characters power. Especially if you're able to recognize the weapon or the armor pieces. It's a bit as if you had your leet badges and super cool uber enhancements on the outside. And I believe this aspect is more important that it seems to be on first glance.

And lets not forget the end game. In WoW it's almost as if the real game begins when you hit L80 (the current max). Even if it's mostly a grind for better equipment, it gives players a goal and something to do. In current CoX the end game is to farm 2Bn influence to buy that Gladiators Armor +Def unique IO and that's it (more or less).

I've never played WoW before, proudly. Mainly because I'm not into the whole medeival wizards and spells and such. Superhero (or villain) stuff is where it's at for me cause I'm a big comic book geek from way back.

The only MMO I've played before this was Age of Conan. yah..........glad I found this game. the players are the most helpful bunch I've seen, the old AoC crowd was pretty much like the WoW crowd I hear about with all the n00bcriers the second you ask for directions on a map. Ask a question in broadcast in CoX and you'll get about 13 helpful replies in /b and 5 more in /c. the environments are beautiful, even redside, the action is great, the teams are for the most part always on the ball, the crowd is a fun and helpful bunch both on here and in game. I love this game, bottom line.